System observability is the ability to understand the internal state of a system by examining its outputs, such as logs, metrics, and traces. It goes beyond simple monitoring by providing insights into why something is happening, not just what is happening.

Follow these practices to improve system observability:
  • Use structured logging in production for easier indexing.
  • Leverage correlation IDs to trace issues across downstream services.
  • Keep payload logging off unless investigating serialization bugs. Revert after debugging.